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AfD boss Tino Chrupalla speaks at a protest by his party in Potsdam, which is directed against the Corona policy
Photo: Fabian Sommer / dpa
Strict contact restrictions, especially for unvaccinated people, 2G in retail, 3G at work: Several thousand people demonstrated on Saturday in various cities against the corona measures to contain the pandemic.
In some places, small groups of so-called lateral thinkers and vaccine skeptics took to the streets.
Elsewhere, several thousand people gathered, some illegally, some led by the AfD.
Quite a few demonstrators adhered to neither the mask requirement nor the rules of distance.
There were counter-demonstrations in several cities.
In
Hamburg
around 5000 people protested against corona measures, as a police spokeswoman said.
However, only one demo with 2000 people was registered.
The demonstration, which has been taking place every Saturday for weeks, was peaceful, but there were difficulties with maintaining the minimum distance.
In
Potsdam
, AfD supporters took to the streets against the corona restrictions and compulsory vaccination.
The occasion of the rally, in which the AfD spokesman Tino Chrupalla took part, was the end of a multi-day vigil "against mandatory vaccination and corona madness" near the state parliament.
Counter-demonstrators also gathered and used whistles.
The parliamentary manager of the AfD state parliamentary group, Dennis Hohloch, announced further protests, including on the sidelines of the next state parliament session in Potsdam in mid-December.
He put the number of participants on Saturday at around 200 to 250, a dpa reporter on site, on the other hand, estimated the number of AfD supporters and counter-demonstrators to be around 100 each. The police did not provide any information in the early evening.
Journalist is attacked and his cell phone is snatched away
In
Berlin
, despite a ban, a low three-digit number of people demonstrated in the Friedrichshain district, according to police.
There were several arrests for violating the corona rules and resisting the officials.
A journalist who filmed the protest with his cell phone was attacked by a demonstrator.
At times, his cell phone was snatched from him.
The alleged perpetrator had to answer for attempted robbery, it said.
An originally registered demonstration by 1,000 opponents of vaccinations and measures was banned on Friday.
According to the police, the reason was earlier findings that the participants regularly ignore the corona rules.
Refusing to wear a mouth and nose covering is one of these types of demonstrations.
In
Frankfurt am Main
, the police broke up two demonstrations after serious violations of the assembly requirements.
The participants disregarded the distance rules and did not wear masks, the police wrote on Twitter.
Around 500 opponents of the corona policy had gathered, and there were counter-demonstrators.
The
police
from
Trier
reported that there was a heated mood among the around 400 participants in a demonstration and a counter-event.
It was thanks to the police's "very specific" approach at times that there were no attacks.
Seehofer warns of radicalization after the incident in Grimma
On Friday, a few dozen people with torches, whistles and posters marched in front of the home of Saxony's Health Minister Petra Köpping in Grimma and protested against the Corona policy.
Apparently they were members and sympathizers of the right-wing extremist organization "Free Saxony".
The incident was sharply condemned by a number of politicians across all parties.
The outgoing Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer said of the incident that this was not a legitimate protest.
"This torchlight parade is organized intimidation of a state representative," said the CSU politician of "Bild am Sonntag".
"That reminds me of the darkest chapters in our German history."
Seehofer fears further radicalization of the so-called lateral thinkers as a result of the planned obligation to get vaccinated against the corona virus.
"We have to be aware that compulsory vaccination against corona can lead to reactions in the population," said the interior minister.
"We see it with the emergence of the so-called lateral thinkers movement, which are against the corona protective measures and are now in the focus of the protection of the constitution."
Fok / dpa